It looks like Microsoft may be about to backtrack on a U-turn, as controversy surrounds their promises to help indie developers.

Yesterday evening reports emerged that Microsoft had abandoned its plans for an ordinary retail Xbox One console to be used as a development kit.

The plan was originally announced this time last year, during Microsoft’s U-turn on indie gaming, and was meant to be a way to make it easier for smaller developers to create games for the format – since usually they have to buy a much more expensive specially-made console.

But yesterday Xbox Advanced Technology Group boss Martin Fuller said the plans were off. ”We were in the early stages of Xbox One looking at the idea of a retail kit that could be turned into a development kit, and vice versa,’ Digital Spy reported him as saying.

‘In the end, although that was a very admirable goal, it hasn’t happened unfortunately. Can’t tell you the specifics of exactly why not.’

Although it’s not something that affects ordinary gamers the news certainly didn’t go down well amongst his audience at the Develop 2014 conference, where he was forced to admit that, ‘As far as I’m aware there are no plans’ and ‘I’m not aware of the reason why we didn’t manage to do that’.

Although Microsoft has been giving out free bespoke development kits anyway, to developers signed up to its ID@Xbox programme, the news will affect the very smallest, and poorest, indie developers – and in particular hobbyists and students trying to learn how to make and design games.

But of course regardless of that broken promises never go down well on the Internet and there’s been an almost immediate U-turn, sort of.

‘The comments today were inaccurate’, reads a Microsoft statement. ‘We remain committed to ensuring the best possible solution for developers and hobbyists to create games for Xbox One. We will share more details at a later date.’

Whether that’s meant to imply Fuller was simply mistaken, or that Microsoft reversed its decision once it saw how bad the reaction was we don’t know, but suddenly the bad old days of the Xbox One’s reveal don’t seem so far away any more…